Yesterday we got a real. honest to God snail-mail flyer (yay for paper!) for California Extreme, hands-down the best classic arcade game show on the planet, and due to take place on July 8-9, 2006 in the Parkside Hall in San Jose, California - right next to where GDC was held this year, if that helps orient you.

Apart from the fact it's about 300 yards away from my house, California Extreme rocks because of the insanely large amount of rare games that collectors haul out of hiding specifically for the show. For example, this is almost certainly the only place in the world you can play Marble Madness II: Marble Man this year - same for the mindblowing, double playfield Akka Arrh, a prototype-only 1982 Atari machine.

Last year, GSW co-editors Simon, Frank, and Brandon all made a pilgrimage to the show (there's plenty of old picture galleries online to give you an idea), and my own personal favorite was Atari's Quantum, an awesome trackball title that got pretty limited distribution back on its 1982 release - only 500 machines ever made, I seem to recall.

The other two wacky guys got waaay into Fire Truck, a dual-player 1978 Atari title where "the front player sits and drives the rig while the rear player stands and steers the trailer." Awesome. [Oh, and CAExtreme has got an absolute crapload of awesome pinball machines, too, for the pinheads amongst us - we have a pinball column starting on GSW soon, incidentally - more info in due course!]